Introduction: In this second article – to help celebrate March being Women’s History Month – Katie Rebecca Merkley searches old newspapers to learn more about the women’s suffrage movement. Katie specializes in U.S. research for family history, enjoys writing and researching, and is developing curricula for teaching children genealogy. She has a website: krgarnergenealogy.com

The battle for women’s suffrage was a long one, and newspapers covered the struggle (as introduced in Part 1). Women were not the only ones fighting; some men believed in equal suffrage as well. This second part in my series includes newspaper articles by and about such men.

Statements by senatorial candidates about suffrage appeared in the newspaper.

For example, Mr. Pinchot says:

“In order to avoid any misunderstanding whatsoever, let me say that I am, and have long been, vigorously in favor of equal suffrage for men and women, and that if elected to the United States Senate, I shall take that position on every proper occasion, and shall do my best to help in making equal suffrage an accomplished fact.”

William Draper Lewis says:

“I believe that women should have the same right to vote as men and I intend to do all that lies in my power to bring about the adoption of a provision in the Constitution of the State providing for woman suffrage.”

Another article on that same newspaper page was titled “A Man’s View of How Women Will Vote on Temperance.” The writer was William Baird Reed.

Reed writes:

“It is enough to say – that it is now only a question of time when woman will have a direct voice in the government by which she is controlled, taxed, tried, imprisoned and put to death. The inapt and shallow objections urged against woman’s right to vote, by pussy-footed politicians and ultra circumspect women, if carried to a logical conclusion would disenfranchise every man living under the American Constitution.”

Another Pennsylvania newspaper posted a statistical report about female voters in presidential elections.

In the 1912 election, the states that gave women the vote totaled 37 electoral votes. Between then and the 1916 election, six Western states had granted women the right to vote: Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, Illinois, Montana, and Nevada. This brought the electoral count affected by female voters up to 91 out of the total 266. The 4 million women who now had the vote had enough influence to sway presidential elections.

This article reports:

Two interesting and significant points are emphasized in Miss Patterson’s statement [State Chairman of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Party]:

That the 12 states in which women now vote control 91 of the 266 Electoral College votes necessary for a choice in determining who is to be president of the United States in 1917.

That no candidate for president can expect to gain the 91 votes controlled by the suffrage states unless he stands unqualifiedly for woman suffrage.

The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader devoted a page to various opinions on suffrage.

Judge Strauss pointed out that around 8 million women in America were working to support families, some of them because men wouldn’t or couldn’t work; therefore, it was only fair to allow women to vote. Mary Morgan Ayres argued that women would vote for the well-being of poor little children, who are often dear to women’s hearts.

Catholic Church leaders in Australia argued that women would vote on laws for the welfare of their children. They also stated that women who had been granted the right to vote had not forgotten their dignity. Another said that women are most religious, moral, and sober, “and it is not easy to understand why their influence in public life is dreaded.”

John D. Farnham said that women’s participation in voting “should make the conduct of elections more moral and decent.” Colonel H. B. Ricketts said that women “Now rule the world and the rest of mankind,” so he would grant them the legal right to do so. Mrs. E. E. Buckman, president of the YWCA, listed three reasons to favor equal suffrage: righteous government is important to both men and women; women are capable of intelligent judgment in public affairs; and it makes no sense to withhold the right to vote from half the adult population.

Lawrence B. Jones believed that women voting would purify politics and increase the importance of character in public office. Mrs. H. W. Palmer claimed she was a suffragist for the “better protection of home and children.” Alexander Farnham pointed out that men and women were both affected by the law, so it was only fair to let both men and women vote.

James M. Farr claimed that the reasons against women’s suffrage were imaginary. He then pointed out that millions of working women had no voice in making laws that affected them. Finally, he pointed out that the masculine viewpoint is limited, making the women’s vote necessary.

Elmer H. Lawall expected women’s votes to improve schools, cities, and politics. G. B. Hillman said “the ballot in women’s hand would be a power for good in the community.” L. S. Ryman pointed out that the suffrage experiment succeeded in the states where it was tried, so he favored it.

In the end, the views favoring women suffrage prevailed. In the United States, women’s right to vote was guaranteed by passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, whose adoption was certified on 26 August 1920.

The battle had been won. Just over a century later, we women still have the right to vote. At the recent election, my husband and I went to the polls together and voted. I had that opportunity because of countless women and men who fought for this right over a century ago.

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: suffragist parade in New York city, May 1912. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Related Articles:

• Women’s History Month: Women’s Suffrage (part 1)
• Women’s Suffrage: The 19th Amendment Ratified on This Day
• 19th Amendment Ratified, Guaranteeing Women’s Suffrage
• Women’s Suffrage Centennial Quotes – Can You Guess Who Said Them?
• African American Women: The Alpha Suffrage Club
• Anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s Death: Women’s Rights Crusader